Mommy's Best Games, Inc. is an independent game developer founded in 2007. Our seventh game, currently in development, is Pig Eat Ball on which we started working in 2013. This is behind the scenes thoughts about game development and marketing.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

There's not much left to do on Serious Sam Double D.. and then there's a lot left to do. We're currently finishing up the last area, which is actually two distinct envrionments. The time period and region for both environments is Pompeii around 79AD just before Mount Vesuvius erupts.

The first area is an exterior view of the city of Pompeii with the volcano in the background. And *naturally* the second area is in the volcano itself! Turns out that the evil Mental's henchmen have built massive power sucking devices which hover over the lava and aborb the heat, transferring the energy through time to the Big Bad himself! Sam's job isn't so much to disable the devices, but rather make his way through this area to the final boss.

Early construction of the Pompeii exterior area. Art is still being tweaked, plus there's no cool enemies shown yet!

Currently I'm finishing up art I had roughed in before, Hamdija is still working on music tracks, Richard is coding background effects, and AJ is tweaking story elements and dialog.

What's in the Pompeii area? Well not to spoil everything but the enemies in final levels are more consistently BIG. As in, giant, walking caterpillar as big a building BIG. A caterpillar that stands up and acts like a massive wall. And has 3 different guns. And has a detachable head. Yeah, it all makes sense in the game. Serious sense.

Serious Sam games are famous for the fun secrets, and we're working to make some great ones. We wanted to make sure you get the most enjoyment out of those unique secrets. To that end, we're also implementing a special Secrets Menu. Instead of the typical version of completing a level and seeing you found 4/7 secrets, now you'll be able to look any time at this menu and see any level you've been in, and all the secrets you've found. There will be the full name and full description of each secret.

Secret cave from Serious Sam The First Encounter

And we're even looking at a way for you to visit them! For instance, if you find one of the 'comedy secrets' and really want to show a friend, you can just open the Secrets Menu, find that secret and click 'Visit' and you'll be loaded into the level just before the funnies. Still working out the kinks but so far it's pretty cool.

And then there's installation, localization and all that fun stuff. Oh and still the final boss. So we're close, but still a little ways to go. But we're getting there!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

E3 is over and Double D wowed press all around!
Check out this in-depth coverage from Dealspwn: http://www.dealspwn.com/sam-double-preview-guns-tits-corpse-piling-63785"By far the most surreal moment came later in the demo when Sam found himself mired in a mysterious sticky fluid. “It’s maple syrup, dude,” explained Fouts… as an enormous stack of pancakes studded with vuvuzelas leapt into centre stage. This hilarious monstrosity made me burst out laughing thanks to the sheer unexpected sillyness of it all (and its adorable blueberry eyeballs)"

And a great look at the game from The Escapist:http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110973-E3-Serious-Sam-Double-D"Double D starts in Egypt, but features other level types such as the prehistoric Nova Scotia that features dinosaurs and tar pits. Sam can hop on the backs of flying dinos to find secrets, and will have to take down giant spineasauruses while avoiding their bites."

In other news, gamer Isaac Hume has asked for help for his charity of choice Little Hearts Matter.

From Isaac:
"This charity helped save my nephew’s life when he was born with a portion of his heart missing and also helped to rehabilitate him into the healthy toddler that he is today.

In order to raise the donation I’m doing what I know how to do best. With the help of a couple of friends, I’ll be running a 24 hour livestream on 15th July, playing and talking about games. My three friends and I will play games, encouraging people watching the stream to get involved, play multiplayer with us and donate to a worthy cause that helps save lives."

Little Hearts Matter treat conditions like Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). While rare, the condition is fatal unless treated. Learn more about it here: http://www.lhm.org.uk/